Erhg! Ahrg! What better way to end the year of 2020 CE off than with a zombie outbreak. covid-19 THE EVENT may not of involved actual zombies, unless you count those bastards at Coles and Bunnings who block off an entire aisle to have a spittle filled mask-less chit-chat.

So, let us all rebuild. Sexypants Mrs. Miyamoto has hew bloody* saw and is ready to chop up some zeds.

* not the Aussie version of 'bloody', I mean the saw has a lot of blood on it.

Starting off in Snoqualmie, a town with a more unusual name than those in my home country, a band of misfits begin to secure a few blocks of houses and farming land. I'm not sure how much land is used for farming in the middle of a city. I mean, I live in a regional area, the type with sheep, cows, and alpacas in it. Every summer I see danger noodles and roos in the streets. But this is a metro city.

With food and moral running low, I ended up switching some from building fences and fighting zombies to resting. Alas, little I would do would support the troops, but I did kill a lot of zeds.

As it turns out, you can't chat to your followers to make them feel a little better until the second map. Where you research how to talk to people. Huh. We're in a pandemic right now and people can't stop yacking.

When you do get the chance to talk to people, the game suddenly clicks together far more than it starts. Friendships and Nemeses can form and equipping people with weapons and items that best support their skillset can be made. Why you would want to give the person who hates your guts nearly as much as AM is something that must be a case of desperation. You can do it though! Sure, guy! Here's a minigun and a tonne of ammo!!

Eventually even romance can form. Just the straight stuff though, we can't have the LGBT in the post apocalypse as we need healthy individuals as breeding stock. I had Miyamoto marry some old looking guy and we used a surplus of food for the wedding. During this time he used a special skill to build a workshop. I mean, he could of been heading off for someone else, the game assumes you are dedicated to each other though.

Until he joined a cult. And committed suicide due to too much coolaid. It was okay, I remarried her a year later, and that guy was then eaten by a zombie.

And this is why my criticism sets in. Eventually you get desensitised to keeping everyone alive. The RNG hits and hits you hard. They are now less like virtual people and more resources in getting to the next map.

Set the time-clock to MAXIMUM SPEED. Stack people with non specific skills and quickly gain territory. The enemy factions? If they are small, STOMP them. If they are about your size... Well, the game can be exploited easy enough to STOMP them too. Otherwise do little appeasement tasks, it does not matter that you make them stronger, you end up forming an alliance quickly. Even with the cannibals that request people from you, who are never seen again.

What starts as a strategic and slow paced game ends up being one of moving unit stacks quickly around the map. One or Two kill-stacks, to fight zombie hordes, and One or Two secure-stacks, to put up walls. You don't end up needing farmers, useless lots can be converted to passive food income farms quickly enough.

You can spare a couple of people to research how to talk to each other as the dialect one town over must be different. Like the type of people who call a potato fritter a potato-cake/scallop, that kinda madness.

I mean, sure. They can also research stronger walls. Or hot to kill zeds more efficiently. But... I never needed it.

And in my case, ahhhh. Well, apparently there was stuff I should of found in previous maps. I found NONE of them. Despite the research. Despite exploring the gas/water plants in my Tasty Brains version of Monopoly. Despite all the time grinding out alliances. Despite all the dives into those locked doors and sifting through car wrecks.

Dictator Sexypants Miyamoto's vaccine turned the last town into zombies. Randomly her action tab would be brain eating and a misclick could involve eating tasty human BRAINS.

We saved the earth by nuking Vancouver. As is tradition.

The first hour or two of this game is fun. Or, I should say, the first couple of maps. Turns out each session I did play was several hours long. It really has that 'just one more tile to capture' feeling.

But it gets old. And a chore. And the fun begins to wither away as RNG events repeat over and over. That old lady and her dog is on every map. The person in need of food will always rob you. There is always loot behind that door.

And it does not change.

Worth a look? Sure. Worth finishing? Only if you really love this genre.

ERG! ARG!

Game Acquisition: Humble (Strategy Simulator Bundle)
Platform Used: Steam
Tweet Threads: 1 - 16 December 2020
PC Used: Scorptec Master-RTX2070 2019 MK1

OS: Windows XP +
Processor: 1.6Ghz
Memory: 1 GB RAM
Graphics: Most cards.
Storage: 200 MB available space